Cheongsong County in North Gyeongsang Province and Jinan County in North Jeolla Province have been selected in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' additional call for the rural basic income pilot project. The two counties each announced the selection that day. The payment is 150,000 won per resident each month, given in the form of currency that can only be used within the region.
Neither of the two selected counties was applying for the first time. Jinan County was dropped in the final review of the same project last December, and Cheongsong County also failed to make the list in the previous year's call. The result came after they skipped a year and prepared the documents again.
According to Cheongsong County's announcement, 44 counties designated as population-decline areas nationwide took part in this additional call. They went through a written evaluation and a presentation evaluation, and in North Gyeongsang Province, Cheongsong County was chosen second after Yeongyang County.
Cheongsong County plans to spend 65.7 billion won over 18 months, from as early as next month through December 2027. The funding is divided into 40% national, 30% provincial and 30% county. Those eligible are people who have held a resident registration in Cheongsong County for 30 days or more and actually live there at least three days a week, and they will receive the money as card-type local currency.
Jinan County will pay 150,000 won a month to all county residents from the second half of this year through the end of 2027. It enacted an ordinance last year to support rural basic income, and set up a dedicated organization and a basic income committee. It has completed consultation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the social security system, and secured 5 billion won in project funds through the first supplementary budget.
In a survey conducted by Jinan County itself, 91.8% of respondents supported introducing basic income. The county did not disclose the survey period or the sample size. The county is also building an integrated welfare platform that attaches existing welfare services to the basic income payment function, managing support for transportation and bathhouse costs for residents aged 65 and over alongside it.
This project does not divide recipients into groups. It does not consider income, age, or whether a person farms. If resident registration and actual residence are confirmed, everyone from newborns to people over ninety receives the same amount.
Yesan County, Buyeo County, Seocheon County and Geumsan County in South Chungcheong Province were left out of this round of additional selections. The details of the evaluation results were not made public.
The end of the pilot project is fixed at December 2027. Whether this money will keep coming after 18 months has not been decided. President Lee Jae-myung said to the effect that permanently introducing rural basic income and raising the amount would have a large effect, but the full context of the remarks was not confirmed.
Local currency cannot be used outside the county, so the payments are spent only at shops within the county. How many times that money circulates, and whether population outflow actually declines, become the standards for evaluating this project.
Jinan County's preparations for the first payment are complete down to the ordinance and the budget. Cheongsong County is targeting payment in July and is about to begin the process of confirming eligible recipients. People living in the two counties would do well to check their resident registration address and the actual residence requirement in advance.
